The Media Register started its activity on 13 February 2015, pursuant to Article 141 of the Law on Public Information and Media (Official Gazette of the RS, nos. 83/2014, 58/2015 and 12/2016). It is an integrated, centralized, electronic database on media.

The Media Register continues its activity in accordance with the Law on Public Information and Media (Official Gazette of the RS, no. 92/2023) which entered into force on 4 November 2023.

Within the meaning of Article 35 of the Law on Public Information and Media, the term media refers to:

  • dailies and periodicals,
  • news agency services,
  • radio program,
  • television program, and
  • online issues of those media, as well as
  • independent online media issues (editor-formatted websites).

Within the Media Register, the following data are subject to registration:

  • name and registration number of the media referred to in Article 35 of this Law; 
  • editor-in-chief’s personal name and identification number (''JMBG'') for domestic nationals, or passport number and country of issuance for foreign nationals; 
  • number of license for providing media services for online media; 
  • data on the language in which the media is published or broadcast; 
  • data on the web, electronic and other formats of the media; 
  • website, for media exclusively distributed over the internet; 
  • business name/title, seat and registration number of media publisher/provider of media services; 
  • a document containing the information about the natural and legal persons who directly or indirectly hold more than 5% of the share capital of the publisher, information about affiliated persons as defined under the law governing the legal status of companies, and information about other publishers in whose share capital these persons hold more than 5%; 
  • data on the amount of state aid granted to the media, in accordance with the provisions of this Law;
  • data on the amount of funds received from public authorities including state authorities, the provincial authorities, the local government authorities, organizations vested with public powers, and legal persons founded or funded, fully or mostly, by the Republic of Serbia, autonomous province, or local government (hereinafter: public authority); 
  • information on the average net paid media circulation in a calendar year;
  • other documents based on which the media were registered;
  • date and time of registration;
  • changes in the registration information;
  • date and time of changes in registered data.

Registered and/or published data on natural persons are not publicly available, except their personal names. 

The data on public media previously registered with the Public Media Register will be registered with the Media Register by the Registrar automatically, without passing a separate decision.

Within six months of the activation of the Media Register, media publishers registered with the Public Media Register are required to report to the Media Register data on media outlets that were not subject to registration according to the previous regulations.